Charities may get extra year to claim gift aid small donations

Parliament is to consider changes to the gift aid small donations scheme regulations which will double the amount of time charities have to claim on small cash donations.

Draft regulations were laid before Parliament at the end of last week which will mean that charities can claim GASDS on donations made up to two years previous, as opposed to the one year in the previous regulations.

This will mean that charities collecting small cash donations for the 2013/14 financial year will have until 2015/16 to claim on those donations, as opposed to the previous rules which would mean organisations would have to make that GASDS claim in 2014/15.

The draft regulation now states: “No top-up claim may be made more than two years after the end of the tax year to which the claim relates.” The regulation will need parliamentary approval before it comes into effect.

This two-year claim timeframe is still significantly less than the claim period for gift aid, which is four years.

The gift aid small donations scheme was announced last year and will come into effect on 6 April. It enables charities to claim a gift aid-like rebate on cash donations of less than £20 up to a value of £5,000 per year. Some commentators, however, have been critical of the scheme, claiming it is too complex and does not support the small charities it intended to benefit.

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